Microsoft Report Viewer 2012 update: a ‘gotcha’ to be aware of

Something which I have been waiting for a long time has finally been released! The ReportViewer 2012 redistributable RTM package is available for download now!

Deployment notes

FYI, ReportViewer is used by Management Studio (SSMS), other utilities and also by any custom application which uses this to render local RDLC reports, or within a web application to view remotely rendered reports.

SQL 2012 installation deploys ReportViewer if the Management Tools are selected for installation. The other shipping vehicle for the ReportViewer control is Visual Studio 2012. This blog post pertains more to the case where we installed ReportViewer through the normal SQL 2012 installer.

FYI, you can view the ReportViewer 2012 assembly version at C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.ReportViewer.WinForms\11.0.0.0__….. Right clicking on the assembly, and viewing the Details tab will give you the version of the DLL.

Note the ‘gotcha’

Now, the updated runtime release will deploy the equivalent of SQL 2012 SP1 binaries, so you get the latest and greatest bits! These should deploy a 11.0.3010 version for the Microsoft.ReportViewer.WinForms.dll file (and other files as well.)

Now, here’s the ‘note from the field’ thing which you can only get from me If you just install SQL 2012 SP1 (without later running the above download) it does not seem to update the ReportViewer control. Normally this may not have much visible impact, but if you are like me, you may want to keep the runtime up to date due to the number of important fixes in such updated versions.

Test case

In my tests, just applying SQL 2012 SP1 installation did NOT upgrade the runtime to 11.0.3000. It was still at 11.0.2100. However, applying the above updated runtime MSI will upgrade the runtime to 11.0.3010.

Your checkpoint is that the version of ReportViewer 2012 assembly under C:\windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Microsoft.ReportViewer.WinForms\11.0.0.0__….. should finally be 11.0.3010 or higher. (repeat this check for the other controls such as Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms as well.

Conclusion

So in short, if you use ReportViewer – either indirectly (like in SSMS) or directly (through custom applications developed using Visual Studio 2012) it is highly recommended to update your RTM ReportViewer 11.0 runtime to the latest version using the MSI from the download link.

I have issue where after installing ReportViewer 2012 Redist (11.0.3010.3), I can't add reference to the assembly in Visual Studi. I can only see the 10.0.0.0 variants. I have checked the GAC and the newer version are installed but bot available.

I'm using Visual Studio Express 2012. I don't receive that error anymore. The only thing that I did differently was install Report Builder. Other than that, I followed your instructions. Thanks for the help.

I am having a similar issue. I download the Runtime version of 11.0 and run the install which goes without a hitch, but when I go to add the item in my toolbox for 11.0 I only see 9 and 10 available. I have uninstalled and reinstalled a number of times and no folder for reportviewer appears in my Visual Studio 11.0 folder.

I am using RDLC , Reportviewer 2012 and visual studio 2013. I have added Microsoft.ReportViewer.Common.dll,Microsoft.ReportViewer.DataVisualization.dll , Microsoft.ReportViewer.WinForms.dll and Microsoft.ReportViewer.ProcessingObjectModel.dll for WPF based application. I am able to generate the report at dev environment. When I run the report from installation from test client machine " Could n't load file or assembly 'Microsoft.SQLServer.Types.dll" . My dll's are being referenced from project related lib folder and not from GAC. I have set Local Copy = true as well. Is Microsoft.SQLServer.Types a mandatory for Reportviewer 2012 ?

I have recently migrated my VS2008 solution to VS2012 and the Report Viewer Control being used has also been updated to use all 11.0 DLLs (which were installed using SSDT for VS 2012). But we do not have SQL 2012 in production setup. What should be the way forward?

How will the production support these new 11.0 DLLS without SQL 2012 being present ?

The controls do not depend on SQL itself being present. All you need to do is install the redistributable (which I had linked to in this post) on production and you should be good to go. Redist link: http://www.microsoft.com/…/details.aspx

I've downloaded the msi, installed it. Getting odd results when I run my reports the ones where I pass the parameters from the web site wok well , the others where I select parameters in report viewer never show/report on anything but the defaults.

Also the version never moves from 11,0.0.0. I just have an assembly folder.

I do not have SQL server/VS installed in the server where i am deploying the code. I am simply creating iis server and hosting the website. I am also getting same error whenever i am deploying the code in server. I can eliminate the error manually by deleting the report viewer from config file. But this can not be a way out. What should i do now?

Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

Can you tell what version to user for the 2012 runtime?

How can I go coy my website from developer 2008 testing to IIS 2012 live without changing my code?

Exception message: Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.ReportViewer.WebForms, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

Im assuming i new the new vsion number and PublickKeyToken. If so how do i get them?

This there a way to run it in the developer and copy to IIS with out having to change code?

@David Dobson: the version for the ReportViewer 2012 is 11.0. EASY WAY to locate the assembly is to use the Visual Studio references dialog and add a reference to the correct version.

HARD WAY: You can find these assemblies at c:windowsassemblygac_msilMicrosoft.ReportViewer.WebForms10.0…. (the full path may vary on your computer). You can only directly access this location from a CMD prompt or such.

Hi,
I see an error when i click on debugger tools in IE “Report Viewer Configuration Error”. I have added the tag for Reserved.ReportViewerWebControl.axd in the web.config file of the ReportServer. I have added a chart in my report and i can see the chart in preview but not on browser. I am using SQL server 2012 and Visual Studio 2015 to create the report. Any thoughts ?

Old reports are not working after updating report viewer version from 9.0.0.0 to 12.0.0.0
CASE 1 : If I create new report in existing solution and deploy on server that report is working fine but Issue with old reports only
CASE 2 : If I create new solution and call old deployed report on report server that time old and new reports are working perfect